4 students protesting Coca Cola arrested in Colombia - Coke licence in India refused

Issued : Wednesday 15 June, 2005

At around 7.30 pm on 3 June 2005, as SINALTRAINAL's protest against Coca-Cola for its policies of environmental destruction was ending (5 June being world environment day) just two blocks from the Barranquilla bottling plant, agents belonging to paramilitary groups carrying firearms, forced four students to get into a grey van. The students are LIZANDRO PERRIL, OMAR PERRIL, WALTER CARCAMO and BERNARDO CHARRIS, from Atlántico University and Pestazzi College. They had been demonstrating their solidarity with the Coca-Cola workers who mounted a protest outside the bottling plant beginning at 9 am. Other students managed to escape by throwing themselves out of the car and taking refuge in the 'Las Nieves' neighourhood.

Inside the vehicle, the students were forced to bend their heads face down and threatened with guns. The paramilitaries said that the Coca-Cola workers are guerrilla chiefs. They accused the students of being guerrillas since they had helped the protest and attended it. They stated that the zone was under paramilitary control and they would not allow any protests there. They knew the students attended Atlántico University and had their home addresses. The paramilitaries ordered the students to leave the city that day or be assassinated. After facing these threats, torture and a drive round the city that lasted about 45 minutes, the students were thrown out of the vehicle near the national police school, situated in Serri neighbourhood.

The paramilitaries could not "disappear" the students thanks to the rapid protests by the comrade responsible for Human Rights in the CUT, as well as the local and national leadership of SINALTRAINAL and the pressure that was exerted by the workers and social organisations to get immediate intervention by the security bodies, the vice-President of the Republic and the DAS [security police]. The students reappeared alive and the paramilitaries did not achieve their objectives.

Once again, this incident occurs at the time when we are presenting our annual negotiating position to Coca-Cola on the north coast region [where Barranquilla is located]. And as the facts have demonstrated, the government of President ALVARO URIBE VELEZ is lying to the world, given that this band of criminal paramilitaries continues assassinating, massacring, disappearing, torturing, forcibly displacing and terrorising the population. The State is affording these paramilitaries protection with the deceitful negotiations seeking to pardon and forgetting human rights violations. The trade unions and social movements seek peace with justice and democracy that resists the authoritarianism and militarism of the government. We demand that the Government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez investigates and punishes those responsible for this macabre incident, that it guarantees union activity and protects the lives of the workers, students, communities and trade unionists.

Yours faithfully,

LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ
President SINALTRAINAL

Village Council rejects Coke licence, Coca Cola fined for tax evasion and Made in India Coke Products Denied Entry into United States

Coca-Cola has been unable to obtain a license for one of its largest bottling plants in India, and the plant has remained shut down due to community pressure since March 2004.

In yet another major blow for the Coca-Cola company in India, the Perumatty panchayat (village council) on Monday rejected Coca-Cola's fresh application for a license to operate its factory for two years in Plachimada, in southern India.

The rejection of the license is the latest in a series of misfortunes for the company in India. Just last week, on June 6, the village council had offered Coca-Cola a license valid for three months and with thirteen conditions. The Coca-Cola company chose not to accept the license and the conditions, and instead, applied for a new, two-year license.

In an anti-democratic move, Coca-Cola has continued to challenge the authority of the village council, insisting that the council has no jurisdiction over the company's bottling plant located in the village. The company argues that the state of Kerala has the necessary authority and jurisdiction over its operations. The case is now scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court of India.

The Coca-Cola bottling plant has remained closed since March 2004 because the village council has refused to renew Coca-Cola's license, citing the company for creating severe water shortages for the community as well as causing pollution of the groundwater and soil.

The local community has remained adamant that the Coca-Cola bottling plant cannot re-open. On June 8, a major rally took place outside the idle bottling plant, and over 500 people were arrested. "This is a major victory for the people of Plachimada and India," said R. Ajayan of the Plachimada Solidarity Committee of the village council's decision to not issue a license to the Coca-Cola company.

The Coca-Cola company has faced a series of protests against its proposed operations in Plachimada ever since the Kerala High Court directed the village council to issue a license to the Coca-Cola company on June 1, 2005. The anti Coca-Cola movement enjoys widespread support in the local community and the company faces an uphill task in trying to reopen its bottling plant in southern India.

Coca-Cola's complete disregard of Indian laws and practice of double standards continue to take its toll on the company in India.

On May 30, 2005, the Commercial Tax Department of Kerala fined the company Indian Rupees 3 million (approx. US$ 70,000) for tax evasion.

On May 19, 2005, a shipment of Coca-Cola products made in India and shipped to the United States was rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on the grounds that they were unsafe and not conforming to US laws. Coca-Cola has been selling drinks in the Indian marketplace with high concentrations of pesticides, including DDT, sometimes higher that 30 times those allowed by US standards. The company maintains its products are safe in India.

"How can Coca-Cola sell products to Indians that are not allowed to be sold to Americans?" asked Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center. "We need to remind Coca-Cola that India is not a country of guinea pigs to be experimented upon," continued Srivastava.

The Parliament of India, incidentally, has banned the sale of Coca-Cola in its cafeteria ever since the studies confirming pesticides were announced in September 2003.